𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐍𝐕𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄 𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐇 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐋 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒: 𝐌𝐈𝐗 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐌𝐀𝐗 ✅

───※ ·21· ※───

───※ ·DAMIAN· ※───

I sighed while looking at my mother sleeping peacefully on her bed. This wasn't how I wanted the study session to be with Nsikan. For some reason, I wanted to tell her everything. But she was right; I owed her no explanation. I wasn't sure what was wrong with my mother. She kept saying it was stress from work, which wasn't reducing the rage boiling in me. If it weren't for the fact that she was holding on to that hospital because of my father's legacy, I would've sold it out. Was the hospital concerned with my mother's mental health? I knew my mother to be a strong woman, but if this was too much for her, then it was too much. How did my father even run that place?

Father...

I hated thinking about him. Whenever I was at home, his constant presence was all I could think of. At school, I had Muller and Thompson to distract me, but at home? I had no one. That made me turn all my attention to reading fictional words, and I found little distractions from that. I could no longer hear the gunshot under the pouring rain or his blood getting washed away by that same rain.

Right now, I am in my mother's room. All my worries were on her, and my thoughts were on my father. I had no novel to distract me, and I didn't want one either. For some reason, I needed the pain. The pain of remembering how my father died

"Sir," I turned my head to my mother's room door as Chisom poked her head in. She looked hesitant as I stared at her with no emotion in my eyes. "You've got a visitor."

"Who is it?" I asked dryly.

"Your um..." She trailed off, then cleared her throat. "Your uncle."

I felt something in me that made me uneasy. My fist balled on my lap as I clenched my teeth together. Mother hated that man, and Father did too. I was neutral because he'd never done anything to me yet. But knowing he was here during my mother's difficult times proved he wanted something.

"I'll be out soon," I said to Chisom after I'd inhaled and exhaled to compose myself. "Tell him to make himself at home."

Chisom nodded before closing the door. Having a father who had died and a mother who groomed me to take over my father's legacy made me grow up earlier than my peers. I was taught how to handle situations greater than myself, though my mother preferred handling them herself.

"What will Mother do?" This has always been my motto. I stared at my mother's sleeping form once more before getting up. Mother wouldn't lose her temper in front of my uncle, and I needed to mirror that.

I stepped out of my mother's room and into the lobby leading to the stairs that would take me to the living room. I was still descending the stairs when I got a glimpse of my uncle sitting on the couch with his legs crossed over each other and his right hand swaying the glass of wine he was holding.

I moved over to where he was seated and stared at him quietly. Noticing my presence, my uncle looked up with a grin on his face. "I was told to feel at home."

"What brought you here, uncle?" I questioned him, immediately brushing his statement off.

Uncle sighed, leaning away from the chair's backrest and placing his glass on the small, wooden table beside the couch he sat on. "What? I can't say hi to my favorite nephew."

"I'm your only nephew," I deadpanned. I had both hands behind my back as I stared at my uncle with a composed face. Though my face was composed, my hands weren't. There was a reason I had my hands behind my back. My fists were balled just looking at my uncle, but I didn't want him to see that.

"True to that," Uncle cackled, then drank his glass of wine in one go. "How's your mother?"

"Why are you asking?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at my uncle.